“Dancing Spirit: A Guide to Sacrificial Living”
Romans 12: 1-8 ~ Rev. G. Scott Turnbrook ~ Northwood United Church
September 3, 2017
I am glad that I wasn’t born in the early days of the faith, but I’m going to invite us to ‘time travel’ back a few Millenia. I would like to take us back to the time of this letter’s creation when sacrifices were commonplace. It would be somewhat routine for people to present dead animals to God at the temple. They would be seeking to atone for their sins and they would sacrifice their prized calf. They might wish to offer thanksgiving, so they would sacrifice a dove. And the temple priests would receive these dead sacrifices, with blood dripping down, and place them upon the altar as a sacrifice to the Lord. Sacrifices were a way in which people connected with God. Dead sacrifices piled up on the altar and one’s relationship with their God was built. I’m guessing that the temple priests went home to their families with blood stains on their hands and clothes, yet feeling that they had made a difference for the people they served that day. And so … I’m glad that I wasn’t born in those days.
In this morning’s text, Paul takes a commonplace term – ritual sacrifice – and he transforms it to mean something profoundly different. For Paul, sacrifice is a positive term of consecration. Sacrifice is about how one shows their dedication to the will of God. He transforms the understanding of how sacrifice leads to dead corpses piling up on an altar in the temple. He transforms sacrifice to being about how it might give life, bring life, and offer life! In short, Paul transforms our understanding of sacrifice to be about life versus death.
Sacrifices have a very different meaning, of course, today. In the baseball world, we think of the player who sacrifices. They intentionally allow themself to be thrown out in order to allow their teammate to advance further, ultimately allowing their team to go on to victory. We think of parents who make economic sacrifices in order for their children to pursue higher education. (My daughter just started university this fall and I’m about to learn just what that means to me). And, as we think of sacrifices this morning, we think about so many of the heroic first responders and, sometimes, just great community citizens who help out their fellow neighbour in times of need ~ here in BC amidst the forest fire crisis, and to the south in the Continental US following the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
Paul encourages us to consider how we might offer our lives as living sacrifices based on our God-given gifts. In this letter, along with 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4, Paul gives a summary of the various gifts we might possess: prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, compassion. None have a higher ranking. In fact, each of the letters contain somewhat different lists. What Paul, I think, is getting at is that there is no ranking of the living sacrifices we make to God. All are different; all are valued; all are essential. They are all critical for the functioning of the community, the church, the Kin-dom of God.
One of the phrases Paul uses in the letter is that of expressing our living sacrifice in what he refers to in Greek as the believer’s ‘logike lateria’. The ‘logike’ is one’s rational and logical portion of their being. The ‘lateria’ is one’s pious devotion or worship of the divine. When Paul refers to one’s ‘logike lateria’, he is calling us, with our whole life, our body and mind, to express our devotion to God. Our lives become expressions of our love for, and service to, God in the way we live them out.
On a personal note, this was a big year for my daughter who graduated high school this past spring. One of the bitter-sweet moments for me was to watch her dance in her final dance recital. I remember being there fifteen years ago when she donned her first tutu and over the years I watched her grow into a graceful, strong and powerful dancer. And in June, I saw her final recital with tears in my eyes. Now, I’m not much of a dancer, but over those years, I’ve learned a few things about the art of dancing. In her book “Dancing Spirit”, accomplished dancer Judith Jamison writes about the relationship between dance and the spirit. She writes: “dance is bigger than the physical body. Think bigger than that. When you extend your arm, it doesn’t stop at the end of your fingers, because your dancing is bigger than that; you’re dancing spirit”. As we think about Paul’s message in this letter, surely we are dancing spirit when we offer our differing gifts as a way for us to connect as “members of one another”. You offer your gift of compassion, and you – your leading, and you – your teaching, and you – your ministry. Each and every one of us is a ‘living sacrifice’, giving our offerings that the whole community might be better, stronger, more blessed, a little closer to the body of Christ here in this part of God’s world.
This past Monday was the 53rd anniversary of Martin Luther King offering his “I Have a Dream” sermon in Washington. I found myself wading through some of King’s resources. As I considered Paul’s text, I found these words of King in a book entitled “Why Can’t We Wait” to be particularly fitting: ‘Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right”.
And so…getting back to where we started in our reflection time…I’m really glad that I’m not a temple priest in the days of Paul. I’m glad that I do not wait here at the church to receive your dead sacrifices. I’m glad that I am not tasked with placing dead animals on altars. I’m glad that I do not come home with blood stains on my hands and clothes. I’m glad that the sacrifices we are called to make are ‘living sacrifices’ ~ sacrifices that give life: to others and to ourselves as we do them. I’m glad that we don’t bring dead animals, but rather we share our living in and through the church. Rather than dead sacrifices, we share the very essence of our lives ~ our leadership, our giving, our compassion.
And as we prepare to come to this table, I am glad that it is not piled with the corpses of animals and dripping with their blood. I am glad that we come to a table which offers us, not death, but rather … life. Two simple foods: bread and wine. Bread for the journey – Jesus’ body. An invitation to be a part of Jesus’ body in our living, to take it in and to live it out. The cup of blessing – Jesus’ cup of sacrifice. A reminder of the everlasting covenant that we are invited to live in to.
Dancing spirit ~ may our faith dance as an extension from our lives. May it be a living sacrifice, representative of all that we are in God’s world.
Amen.